New Helvetica

[Vogel]

New Helvetica

Official Name: Novus Confederatio Helvetica (New Helvetic Confederation)
Government: Federal Republic with Parliamentary System and Direct Democracy
Location: New Helvetica System
Capital: Planet Bern
Population: 12,850,000
Currency: Gallic Franc
Factions/Groups: Helvetians (Currently all-encompassing, later: Helvetic Guard)
ID/IFF: Freelancer/None (Requires its own ID and IFF at some point)
Tag: Fighters =NHC=Rank.Firstname.Lastname
Larger ships =NHC=HGS-Shipname

General Information

History:

The Gallia was, as far as it is known, the last Alliance sleeper ship built and the last launched. It carried an untold, but undoubtedly large, number of French colonists, and would be the bastion for French culture in the 31st century. But due to its purpose, that of carrying forsaken people away from the iron grip of the Coalition, the leaders of France opened their arms to any other survivors they could take with them. As it were, a reasonable portion of those left behind were naturalized Swiss.

Even though Switzerland tried to maintain its neutrality and safety during the Sol War, its destruction was inevitable; nuclear warfare on Earth rendered the small Alpine country covered in radioactive fallout, trapped on a half-dead planet. Any Swiss who managed to escape this fate quickly rendezvoused with their brethren dwelling in other nations, namely those of the Western Alliance. France had the largest portion of Swiss among the Alliance, and therefore was tasked with essentially taking care of a neutral, leeching population. Of course, there were many Swiss citizens who decided to fight for the Alliance, but their exploits were lost in the fires of the war: Switzerland had never been a member of the Alliance, and its now homeless citizens were not granted slots for the Sleeper Ship project. Needless to say, the surviving Swiss population of some 250,000 was present for the launching of the Gallia, and as a gesture of good faith and through the desire to rebuild the Earth of old, to say nothing of sympathy for their fellow "victims", the French sent with it a number of Swiss colonists.

The proportion of Swiss colonists aboard the Gallia was very low, but enough to maintain the memory of their heritage. For the first century or so after the Gallia landed on New Paris, the Swiss colonists coexisted with the French easily thanks in no small part to their mutual heritage and commonality of both French and International English language. But even as the populations intermingled, a large number of the Swiss descendants, in spite of their European cultural ambiguity, insisted on maintaining an image of independence, a statement making it clear that they were still "Swiss" even if the rest of the colonists around them had took on the Gallic moniker. On several occasions this would cause friction with the belligerent monarchy which was established practically from the very first day of rebuilding, but the Swiss were adamant as they had kept their past an integral part of their culture, and a large number of the Gallic citizenry were in their favor.

It was finally decided after two centuries of relative idleness that the Swiss would be granted a land of their own, guaranteed the same neutrality and rights that it had back on Earth, albeit hamstringed by the lack of contact with any other nations than Gallia. In 380 A.S. Gallic King Charles III granted the Swiss population, which had now swelled to a number of some 1,300,000, a single system in what would become the Gallic Border Worlds. The Swiss descendants, jubilant over what they felt to be their long-deserved reward, formed a loose government and renamed themselves after their traditional national figure "Helvetia". They were now Helvetians, and New Helvetica was calling.

Sadly the whole ordeal was something almost of a joke: the star system which would be christened New Helvetica would prove to be a rather harsh place to live, bereft of many resources. Even still, the Helvetians would make use of it. They chose the single planet in the system as their capital, naming it Planet Bern. Bern was hardly a paradise; its climate was nearly arctic all throughout, ranging from cold to blistering cold depending on the rotation of the world. It was not located near any significant natural resources, nor was much to be found on the planet itself. A single moon, named Dom after the highest mountain in Switzerland, had only marginal amounts of metals and was predominantly worthless, and an ice field that made up the rest of the system named Lucerne held water and not much else. Obviously the Helvetians were forced into a position where they were to be subservient to the Gallic throne, dependent on its resources and protection. But yet again the descendants of the Swiss were too stubborn to accept ignominy.

The development of Planet Bern proceeded at a brisk pace, and entire underground cities were built within decades. Considering the size of the planet as opposed to the size of the original Switzerland, there was no method of splitting the land into the same 26 political cantons, so entirely new ones were created; before long the entire planet had been mapped and divided into an appropriate layout. With great difficulty, the old Federal Republic system, complete with the Parliament and Direct Democracy, took form as the "New Helvetic Confederation". In retrospect, considering its surroundings, this form of government was an experiment in the highest degree, but after striving for independence for so long the Helvetians managed to hold the system together.

In terms of industry and technological development, the Helvetians were quick to assemble their best minds into a conglomerate of teams that were competitive with the best Gallic corporations. The result was Helvetic Federal Industries, a government-subsidized company that began the Helvetians first spaceward leap with the construction of Zurich Station in Bern orbit. A massive citadel of steel, Zurich would become representative for New Helvetica as a whole, being the first stop for any visitors of any stripe and evolving into both a base of commerce and a native shipyard. At the same time, HFI began dabbling in other scientific endeavors, such as geothermal power plants on Bern, advanced mining techniques to squeeze anything worthwhile out of the Dom moon, and their latest invention: a Molecular Phase Separator designed to split molecules into component parts and reassemble them into more useful materials. This device would manifest itself in an attempt to make use of the vast ice fields in the system, splitting the water into the component parts of hydrogen and oxygen. In spite of virtual dependence on Gallic technology, the Helvetians began their own research and development projects which would occasionally manifest themselves in custom ships and weapons for defense and policing duties. Their inventions, while advanced, are obviously small in number, but carry the Helvetic banner in a way no Gallic technology ever can or will.

New Helvetica, like its Terran predecessor, desired to be a neutral, independent nation focused on international (or in this case interstellar) cooperation, complete with its original governing system. The nations policies were in direct conflict with those of an absolute monarchy like the Gallic Crown, and given the growing instability in Gallia as the years went on, New Helvetica would be put on the chopping block more than once, just barely skirting hostile takeover. Dissidents such as the Council who advocated the toppling of the Crown would look at New Helveticas democracy and pacifistic tendencies and see a vision of their Utopia, therefore the Helvetic government was hard pressed to deny Council support and disavow any involvement with them when the Crowns fleets knocked on their door. In an effort to compensate, New Helvetica attempted to mediate some of the inter-Gallic conflicts that sprung up, but with their independence came the consequence of a notable break with the Gallic people; they were no longer fellow colonists, and what business did the Helvetians have in Gallic affairs? A peace convention during the years between the First and Second Gallic Civil Wars was a humiliating disappointment, and an effort to create a neutral humanitarian organization was met with applause and then resigned sighs when their ships were stopped from intervening to save innocents caught in the line of fire during the Second War.

Indeed, New Helvetica's position was, and has remained, precarious. It is a thorn in the Crown's side that cannot be removed without sufficient reason: taking over the system and its inhabitants betrays the entire purpose behind their presence on the Gallia, therefore undermining the very vengeful ideology that the Crown pursues. At the same time, taking drastic action against the Helvetians plays into the propaganda of groups like the Council, so the use of force, the cornerstone of Gallic Royal policy, must be restrained. In the end, it was believed that because of their lack of resources and obvious weakness compared to Gallia as a whole that New Helvetica would remain pacified, happy to simply have a sovereign home even if in theory only.

But the Councils reconnection with Sirius brought about a new opportunity to play out their historical role as a moderating neutral nation amongst warring parties, something the Sirius Sector has yet to experience. However the Gallic Crown is clearly averse to the situation, since their idea of moderation involves a steamrolling battle fleet. New Helvetica is thus forced into a harrowing position: Do they cooperate with groups like the Council in order to spread their message to the rest of Sirius and infuriate the Crown, or do they lie down and stay idle, just as King Charles III intended all those years ago? Given their history, the answer is obvious, but how they will succeed in their endeavor is anyones guess.


Faction Roles:
- Acting out a relatively neutral but politically active faction with direct player leadership that can make its own diplomatic decisions and thereby have some type of effect on player-based diplomacy.

- Maintaining relations with the Gallic Crown while attempting to communicate and negotiate with the other Sirius houses and factions, encouraging plenty of roleplay with far less mandatory PVP action.

- Serving as an alternative RP element to the relatively stagnate inter-Gallic scenario, which would be made all the more static in the event the GRN invades Sirius and thus expands hostile GRN influence further away from the Gallic systems, putting them truly out of reach of those other than the Gallics.


Diplomacy:
The beauty of this area is that New Helvetica has never known anything other than Gallia, and is trying to play the same roles its ancestor did. While it professes the desire to be neutral, this is obviously an impossibility; the presence of official unlawful groups even guarantee this. Therefore New Helvetica has the unique chance to shape its own diplomacy based on in-game and forum interaction with other factions, Houses, and the like. There is zero guarantee that it can maintain neutrality, though it may die trying to. There is zero guarantee they can make peace with factions like the SCRA, the descendants of those responsible for the destruction of Switzerland so long ago. There isnt even a guarantee that they can make peace with the Houses, since theyre so closely identified with Gallia that the oncoming invasion might permanently tarnish their reputation. Therefore, all relationship levels here are limited to what is currently known by the Helvetians themselves; the rest would be made by the players themselves as time goes by.

The Council Friendly New Helveticas mere existence, while not the direct inspiration of the Gallic Liberation Movement, was nonetheless a boon to its message. The Helvetian public, much like the general Gallic public, does not see the Council as a negative factor in Gallia. The government, however, is more concerned, for it is the Council that has broken the bonds of the Crown and opened the way to Sirius. While officially they cannot afford to aid the Council in any way, rest assured that in small ways New Helvetica most certainly can and will interact with the Council in their mutual best interests.

Gallic Royal Police Neutral More representative of the Gallic public than the Navy, the Helvetians have a relatively neutral view of the Police. They are meant to be protectors of the peace, nothing more, and the Helvetians can respect that. Hopefully, however, they are corrupt enough to turn a blind eye to Helvetic envoys trying to leave Gallia.

Maquis/Union Corse/Gallic Brigands Unfriendly While they are allied with the Council, the reputations of these factions prohibits the people of New Helvetica from seeing them in any positive light. Naturally they desire no conflict, but in the event they make a move on Helvetic targets or penetrate Helvetic space, they are to be removed in whatever way necessary.

Gallic Royal Navy Unfriendly The standard-bearers of the Crown, the Royal Navy is the Crowns threat to New Helvetica personified. While there is no open declaration of hostilities, it is important to remember that they are the reason for New Helveticas isolation, and that sooner or later the effort to break out could spark a conflict.